Rude Awakening
At just past 8 am local time, there was an explosion south of Erbil. I ran up to the roof of the house, hoping it was just a sonic boom, but then I saw this:
dust & smoke cloud photo
smoke cloud citadel zoom photo
Excuse the poor quality of this extreme crop, I wanted to show that despite the black smoke in the background, the Kurdistan flag is still flying!
I posted this to my private blog at 9:11. I procrastinated a bit, I admit, I could have had this up by 8:15.
This was the first external news found over an hour later at 9:25 local time:
After a briefing by US officials and generals, Mr Cheney is expected to meet Iraqi leaders and urge them to work harder to heal political divisions.
A truck bomb has meanwhile killed at least 15 people in Irbil, in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
The bombings that have plagued other parts of Iraq remain rare in Kurdistan.
Television pictures showed the blast had destroyed a building and left a large crater on a road where interior ministry offices are located.
A witness quoted by Reuters news agency spoke of "fire coming out from the blast area. A man was burned to death."
A security official, First Lt Mariwan Kareem, told the agency the explosives in the truck had been hidden under kitchen cleaning products.
The blast took place at 0800 local time.
The near-daily bombings and instability that have gripped much of Iraq have been largely absent from the northern region, but political tensions are rising over the drafting of a bill that will redistribute oil wealth among the country's Kurdish, Sunni and Shia population.
Most of Iraq's oil is concentrated around the Kurdish north and Shia south.
Irbil last saw a major attack in May 2005, when the offices of a local political party were hit by a suicide bomber.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/6637649.stm
Published: 2007/05/09 07:25:22 GMT
The KRG responded with a press conference and this statement on the KRG.org website:
KRG statement on explosion in Erbil on May 9 2007 | ||||||
| 9 May 2007 Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq At a few minutes past 8am today, a truck-bomb exploded in the street outside the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Interior in Erbil. Fourteen people were killed and 87 injured. Several of those injured are in a critical condition while the majority have light injuries, according to our health services. This is the only such terrorist attack in the Kurdistan Region since 2005. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) condemns this cowardly and barbaric act. Our thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims and we thank the emergency services and the people of Erbil for their response to this incident. We remain steadfast in our resolve to protect the people of Kurdistan and to play a positive role in the global effort to defeat terrorism. The KRG and our security forces are determined that the peace and stability in our Region will continue, while we make every effort to improve the security situation in other parts of Iraq. The Spokesman Kurdistan Regional Government
The Kurdish Globe reported this (they have much to learn about speculation in reporting, they should just be reporting the FACTS): Wednesday, 09 May 2007, 08:55 EDT http://www.kurdishglobe.net/displayArticle.jsp?id=C090692D57F1619A6F894898DCC178F9 Big blast rocks Erbil A suicide truck bomb exploded outside the Interior Ministry building in the Kurdish city of Erbil northern Iraq, Wednesday, May 9, 2007. Globe Photo/Saffin Hamed The Globe A big explosion rocked Erbil today morning, as a suicide bomber drove his truck into the gate of Erbil's security headquarters and Interior Ministry. The blast which took place at 8:00 a.m. local time was the first in almost two years, after Erbil had seen no bombings since June 2005. Kurdistan's health Minister Ziryan Abdurrahman told reporters that 19 people were killed and 80 others injured.There were conflicting reports about the use of acid capsules or cleaning materials by the suicide car bomber. A source from Erbil's Security Office told the Globe that they estimate the truck to have carried around 800 kilos to one ton of explosives, but said they don't have any clues yet on the identity of the suicide bomber. He rejected the use of acid capsules by the suicide bomber. The newly-built three-story building of the Interior Ministry and the Erbil Security Headquarters were seriously damaged by the blast. The source said they have started extensive investigations into the issue and will announce the results once the investigations finish. A statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) condemned the "cowardly and barbaric act" and pledged to secure "the peace and stability" of Kurdistan. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but the style and tactic resemble those used by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups in others parts of Iraq. Earlier, a senior Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told the AP that the al-Qaeda linked group of Ansar al-Sunnah was behind the attack. Meanwhile, government sources in Sulaimaniya- the second largest city of Kurdistan Region after Erbil- said today that they managed on last Monday's evening to discover and defuse several bombs planted in the building of Sulaimaniya's Culture Office. Following today's blast hospitals in Erbil were full of people, who had rushed there to know about the fate of their loved ones who were in the site of the attack. Hundreds of people were also present to donate blood for the injured. Security forces had earlier announced the arrest of several extremists in Erbil and Sulaimaniya who wee involved in "terrorist acts" and were plotting new bombings. In Sulaimaniya, a group of 14 suspects who were plotting to drop chemical gases on the city were detained by the security services there. Kurdistan that has been spared the bloody violence in the rest of the country, has witnessed increasing attempts over the past months for launching attacks against targets in the area. |
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